Twenty-Four
NOW
Gorgon drove his fist into Josh’s stomach again. The doctor slammed into the wall and his handcuffs chimed as he sank down to the lobby floor. “You have to understand,” he coughed. “I wasn’t …I just wasn’t thinking right. Haven’t you ever lost someone you loved?”
“Yes,” growled Gorgon. They stood in the Roddenberry lobby, the closest Cerberus could get to Stealth’s office. As it was, the battlesuit rested on one knee, its head scraping the ceiling. Zzzap hovered nearby, lighting the entire lobby even as he charred the ceiling panels. Josh coughed again. “And what would you do, Nick?” he said.
“If you could bring Kathy back right now, if you had that power, wouldn’t you use it? Wouldn’t you try to do it?” The goggles lowered to the floor. “I did what any of you would’ve done,” he told them.
“George, wouldn’t you try to save someone if you had the power? I tried to save the woman I love and I …I made a mistake. That’s all. Just a mistake.”
“You killed the world,” said Stealth. “Billions of people are dead because of what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” St. George was standing off to the side, still bare-chested, kneading his scalp with both hands. “So now what?”
“What do you mean?” He threw a glance at Josh. “What do we do with him? This is .
. . Jesus, this is huge. This is war crimes huge.”
“He makes Hitler look like a fucking saint,” muttered Gorgon. “Do we tell everyone? Do we lock him up forever? Do we . .
.” St. George’s voice drifted off. “I think we’re missing the big issue here.” They all looked at Cerberus. “You started this. Can you stop it?” Josh turned to her. “What?”
“This all stems from your powers. Can you undo what you did?”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, of course not. I can’t un-heal someone. Don’t you think I would’ve done that years ago if I could?” This isn’t healing, though , said Zzzap. This is …this is just
unnatural. “Unnatural,” smirked the doctor. “You’re a walking fusion reactor. George is bulletproof. Nick’s a fucking vampire, for Christ’s sake.
And you’re saying I did something unnatural?” Gorgon was still looking at the floor. “Is it tied to you?”
“What?”
“You created all these things with your power. Even if you can’t stop them, are they still linked to you somehow?” Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe?”
“There is a simple way to find out,” said Stealth. It was a scene from a western. She pulled the Glock so fast, like a quick draw artist, that there was no time to stop her. Josh’s forehead burst before most of them even realized she had the pistol out. St. George was just starting to lift his arm when the doctor’s eyes rolled back in his skull. Josh tipped over backwards, hitting the wall just under the splatter.
Blood poured out of his mouth and the ruined mass of his nose. “What the HELL!?!” shouted St. George over the echo of the third gunshot. Stealth looked at him as she holstered the pistol, and her voice almost sounded confused. “It seemed like the simplest solution to all our problems.”
“You know, every time I start to think there’s really something human under that mask, you go off and—” Josh lunged up and took in a deep, rattling breath. Oh, Jesus , said Zzzap. Stealth had her pistol back out. Josh’s eyes trembled and swung back down. The irises trembled and shrank, focusing on Stealth. The bloody hole swelled, filled in, and sealed itself shut. His nose wove itself whole again. The doctor staggered back to his feet, his hand shaking as he felt the back of his head. Cerberus made a noise inside her armor that came out as a hiss of static. There was a coarse, scraping noise as the back of his skull knitted together and his nose pulled itself tight. He spat out a mouthful of blood and a tooth he’d already regrown. “Oh, come on,” he wheezed. “All I’ve been through and you think a few bullets are going to put me down?
Don’t you think I tried that?” St. George glared at him. “You said your powers were gone.”
“I can’t heal anyone else,” said the doctor. “Can barely even heal me. But it keeps me alive. Trust me, I’ve been trying for over a year. I’m here whether I like it or not.” He leered at them with mad eyes. “We’ll decide what to do with him later, then,” said Stealth.
“Gorgon.” The goggles whisked open and his gaze pinned the doctor.
Josh didn’t try to look away. He sank to the floor as Gorgon dragged out his life. The doctor began to twitch on the carpet. “That’s enough,” said St. George. Josh spasmed for a few more moments before the lenses snapped shut. Gorgon drove his boot into the fallen man’s head. “Just to be sure,” he told them. St. George shot him an angry look before turning to Stealth.
“So what do we have?” She threw a blueprint of the Mount on the lobby floor and crouched next to it. “The walls are still secure, the fences are all reinforced, so the most likely attack points will be the Melrose gate, Bronson, and North Gower.”
“What about Van Ness or Marathon?”
“Too far east and north for a major assault,” she said. “We can leave regular guard units there. If the Seventeens have done any reconnaissance of their own they will know Marathon is sealed.”
“So’s Bronson.”
“Sealed to regular exes. If they are being guided by Casares we must assume they will be smarter and more resourceful. It is the next closest gate after Melrose, the fence is low, and it is a very tempting target.”
“I’d still like to see extra people at Van Ness,” said Gorgon. “You doubt my strategy?”
“I doubt Rodney’s going to approach it as strategically as you are. He’s kind of an idiot when you get down to it.”
“I was taking his lack of formal training into account.” Cerberus pointed a thick metal digit north of the studio. “Are we worried about Hollywood Forever?” Inside the hood, Stealth’s head shook. “The sheer height of the walls still protects us there. Regular numbers along that wall.” Gorgon tapped the blueprints. “If we break it down that way, we’ve got enough manpower for forty, maybe forty-five guards at each of these gates.” That’s it? He shrugged. “We don’t have an army. Fuck, we barely have a militia.” The battlesuit straightened up as best it could. “How many weapons do we have? We could ask for more volunteers.”